American lobster

There is concern for the biomass, the average abundance is well below the threshold and recent recruitment estimates are the lowest on record. However, exploitation is low and there is no concern for the fishing pressure.The Southern New England fishery was historically an inshore-dominated fishery but in recent years, warming waters and associated lobster habitat changes have resulted in a shift and landings from offshore areas are now higher than inshore. Since 2010, the Southern New England fishery is the smallest US lobster fishery.The Southern New England stock abundance increased from the early 1980s, peaked during the late 1990s, then declined steeply through the early 2000s to a record low in 2018. The average abundance from 2016-2018 was 7 million lobsters, well below the threshold of 20 million lobster. Additionally, recent recruitment estimates are the lowest on record. Therefore, there is concern for the biomass.However, the Southern New England stock is not thought to be experiencing overfishing. The average exploitation from 2016-2018 was 0.274, falling between the exploitation threshold of 0.290 and the exploitation target of 0.257. Therefore there is no concern for fishing pressure. American lobster have a medium vulnerability to fishing pressure.Extensive research has been carried out showing the connections between environmental conditions and American lobster life history and population dynamics. The 2020 stock assessment applied new methods to account for changing environmental influences when assessing the lobster stocks. Environmental data time series included water temperatures at several fixed monitoring stations throughout the lobster’s range, average water temperatures over large areas such as those sampled by fishery-independent surveys, oceanographic processes affecting the environment, and other environmental indicators such as lobster prey abundance.

Management varies depending on the area and in Southern New England, it has been unsuccessful in recovering the stock. There are minimum and maximum size limits in place, and trap limits in most areas. However, there are no limits on catches, and management would benefit from harvest control rules. Management is also not thought to be adequate to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.American lobster is managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in the 0-3 mile area and by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in the 3-200 mile area. Both organisations are legislated by the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act. The US fishery is managed under the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and there are 7 lobster conservation management areas with Lobster Conservation Management Teams (LCMTs), composed of industry representatives, which were formed for each management area.Management measures in place include minimum carapace length, v-notching closed seasons, minimum and maximum size, slot limits, trap limits, and protection of egg bearing females. Many of the regulations have been in use for at least 100 years. However, the commercial lobster fishery is not managed by quota limitations and instead trap caps are used to control fishing effort. Vessels are allocated individual trap allocations based on their prior fishing history in the area.Not all fishermen are required to report landings to either the state or NOAA Fisheries. This is a growing problem as, due to species shifts and a decline of the inshore population, an increasing percentage of lobster is being harvested from federal waters.The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (ALWTRT), established in 1996, was introduced to reduce the risk of serious injury and death of the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW) due to entanglement in commercial fishing gear. The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction plan (TRP) was first published in 1997, and most recently amended in 2015. It specifies gear restrictions and modifications, such as weak links, gear markings and seasonal prohibitions on locations where traps can be set. However, the TRPs in the northeastern U.S. are regarded as the least successful of the U.S. TRPs at reducing marine mammal bycatch. To date, the ALWTRT has failed to reduce serious injuries and mortalities to a level below the potential biological removal, and to a level approaching zero.In September 2021, NOAA published the Risk Reduction Rule to reduce the risk posed by the U.S. lobster and Jonah crab trap fisheries to large whales. The new rule requires fishers to increase the number of traps between buoys, known as "trawling up". This allows the same number of traps to be fished while reducing the threat of entanglement in vertical buoy lines. The minimum number of traps that must be fished per trawl varies by region and distance from shore. The Risk Reduction Rule also requires all vertical lines to include a weak rope or weak insert, reducing the breaking strength of the vertical line to 1,700 lb.In March 2022, electronic tracking requirements were introduced for federally-permitted vessels in the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries. Electronic tracking devices will be required for vessels with commercial trap gear permits for Lobster Conservation Management Areas (LCMAs) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and Outer Cape Cod to collect high resolution spatial and temporal effort data. It is hoped that this will significantly improve stock assessment, identify areas where lobster fishing effort might present a risk to endangered North Atlantic right whales, and document the footprint of the fishery to help reduce spatial conflicts with other ocean users like wind energy development and aquaculture.In July 2022, a federal court ruling found that regulations introduced in 2021 intending to reduce the fishery's risk of entangling right whales, did not meet the requirements of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for fixed-gear fisheries. As a result, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification was suspended (and subsequently withdrawn) for not complying with relevant laws.

In the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, entanglement in vertical lines used in trap fishing gear is very likely leading to the decline of the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW).Lobsters are caught in pots, also known as creels, and can be fished individually or as part of a fleet of up to 100 pots, depending on the size of the boat and crew. Pots are portable traps made of wood or steel wire and plastic. The lobster is baited into the initial part (the chamber) and moves into the secondary part (the parlour) where it becomes trapped.Habitat impacts from potting are low but can occur during deployment, soak time or hauling of the pot, impacting the benthic habitat and associated species through contact with the pot or end weight, or by scouring from ropes. Research that has taken place suggests that while some damage does occur to the sediment, it is unlikely to be significant unless potting intensity is high (defined as approximately 30 pots per 500 square metres). Most damage occurs where traps are set in rocky habitats that are home to corals, sponges, sea whips and other large emergent species. These habitats and species provide nursery areas, refuges from predators and habitat for the settlement of invertebrate spat.Pot fisheries tend to be highly selective as undersized animals can be returned to the sea alive and survival rates for non-target organisms are thought to be high. More than half of the bycatch caught are predicted to survive, although there is little available research to prove this. Measures to further reduce bycatch include the use of escape panels to allow undersize animals and bycatch to escape pots. In some circumstances, there can be instances of ghost fishing, when lost fishing gear continues to fish and can entangle a variety of species, but this can be minimised by using appropriate gear and release devices.Entanglement in vertical lines used in pot fishing gear is the main threat to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW). Population estimates of NARW vary, and recent literature suggests that there are fewer than 350 remaining, with fewer than 88 reproductive age females. With so few breeding individuals, the death of a single animal from any cause could pose a threat to the continued existence of the species.Most NARW entanglements are not identifiable to gear. However, the number of serious injuries and mortalities of NARW from entanglement has increased dramatically, and from 2010 to 2015 entanglement accounted for 85% of diagnosed NARW serious injuries and mortalities. On average, a quarter of the North Atlantic Right Whale population has evidence of entanglement interaction each year. Rope strengths in the American lobster fisheries have increased in recent decades due to manufacturing, which could reduce the ability to breakaway when entangled in gear.While management measures to protect the species are in place, the US has a target of less than 1 whale mortality (0.7 potential biological removal) which is currently not being met. From 2010-2021, this target was only met in one year, with the total estimated mortality well above this over the time series. Therefore, it is thought that entanglement is very likely leading to the decline of the critically endangered NARW.

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